


Jump Scare

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [209]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Getting Together, Halloween, M/M, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29942850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: James wasn't sure if he fancied Sirius or if they were just best mates. When Sirius comes to hang out with his uni friends the day before Halloween, he figures it out.
Relationships: Sirius Black/James Potter
Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [209]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/752925
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	Jump Scare

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “Hi I don't know if this is where you post prompts but anyway - today is my birthday - the day before halloween and I was wondering if you could do a fic where James is just starting to realise he likes Sirius more than a friend. I was thinking like a haunted house theme where Sirius gets hurt or scared. Love your blog :)”

James was all for the idea of going to a haunted house. He actually liked the idea so much that he was a little offended he hadn't been the one to come up with it. But whatever. 

Uni was weird and took a lot of getting used to, but he liked the new friends he'd made. The only unfortunate part was that all these new mates served to make him think about Sirius. Normally that wasn't a problem, but with all the thinking he'd been doing about Sirius, it made him realise that he fancied him. Which. Y'know. Was sort of a problem. And he wasn't even a hundred percent certain that he fancied him. It just felt like he thought about Sirius more than most people thought about their mates, and in ways that people didn't think about their mates. He wasn't too sure about it. 

Point is, when Lily invited him to be part of the group that went out for Halloween-- rather, the day before, so that it fell on a weekend and they could miss the _really_ busy times-- he asked if Sirius could come without thinking about it. She immediately said yes and added that she was looking forward to meeting him, so it's not like he could change his mind even if he wanted to. And he wasn't sure that he would've changed his mind if he _did_ have the opportunity to. 

Sirius showed up at the cafe where they were all meeting, and James barreled into him happily. "Oof, bloody hell," Sirius said with a laugh. "You miss me then?" 

"You have no idea." 

"Oh," Lily said with a smile, "you must be James's boyfriend, Sirius. He talks about you all the time." 

Sirius blinked. 

"Er," James said, and he was about to correct her, but Sirius spoke before he could. 

"Yep, that's me." 

"Nice to put a face to the name. I'm Lily," she said, holding out her hand, and Sirius shook it, then was introduced to everyone else that was there. 

They were waiting on a couple more people before they left, so they got in line. "Boyfriend?" Sirius said, keeping his voice low. He sounded amused, which was better than him being upset. It did mean that James had no idea how he felt about it, though. If he sounded mad, then James would know that he was mad. Sounding amused could mean any number of things. Did he think that the idea of them dating was completely silly? Or was he amused because they'd been dating and James just hadn't noticed? The idea was a bit strange, but he'd never been the most observant person in the world; he wouldn't put it past himself to have been dating Sirius and not noticed until someone else told him. 

"I never called you that. Lily came up with it all on her own." It was the first James had heard of it, and he felt like if Lily was going to assume someone was his boyfriend, she should at least mention it to him first, before she started saying it to other people. At least it would provide him with the opportunity to ask if they _were_ dating. He could always ask Sirius, but- 

"Aww, how cute." 

But _that_. He didn't know what that meant. 

And Sirius didn't bother to elaborate. 

James wouldn't be half so nervous to ask him what that meant if he actually knew how he felt. Maybe he was overthinking it and he only liked Sirius as a friend. What would he do then, if he asked? Sirius would think that he fancied him-- with good reason-- and if they started dating, then what would James do? It's not as if he could just back out when he was the one that initiated it, not to mention that he didn't want to hurt Sirius's feelings. Assuming that Sirius had those feelings for him, which wasn't a guarantee. 

Sodding hell, he was turning into his father. Dad overthought everything at any given time. At Hogwarts, James had found the idea of turning into his father impossible. Now... well, now was different. Hopefully some of the ways it was different were good, because he'd kind of hate it if the only change he'd experienced in the last year was overthinking rubbish. 

* * *

James wasn't a very jumpy person. He enjoyed scary movies and haunted houses, but they didn't usually make him get scared. He'd always thought of Sirius as being the same, but their Halloween get-together proved that assumption wrong. 

The first couple jump scares in the haunted house got him, and after that, Sirius plastered himself to James's side. He still got scared, but rather than jumping out of his skin every time, he'd inhale sharply and his grip on James's arm would tighten. After the moment passed, he would loosen his grip a little, and about halfway through, he switched to holding James's hand. James didn't know if that was in consideration for not bruising him, or if it just made him feel better that James could squeeze his hand in return. 

Either way, James didn't really mind. It's not like Sirius was hurting him, and if it made him feel better, then he was happy to be able to help. 

When they left, they all went over to Marlene's place to watch scary movies, and Sirius preemptively sat close to him. So close that he was practically in his lap, but since they'd shared a bed for a cumulative total of two years, James wasn't bothered. Also there was all the cuddling and hugs and hanging off of each other that they'd done while wide awake, but James had sort of forgotten about that until right now. He _missed_ this. The casual intimacy of it. He felt like he hadn't touched another human being in months, and now he was making up for it with Sirius back in town. 

James was well and truly convinced that it wasn't specific to Sirius until they were on the second half of the movie, and Marlene grabbed his arm when an axe went through the door on screen with a loud bang. The side with Sirius felt all warm and snuggly. The side with Marlene was a little uncomfortable and kind of too hot. But he couldn't tell her to move without doing the same to Sirius, and he didn't want to do that. Maybe he _did_ fancy Sirius. After all, he was friends with Marlene, but her doing the same thing as Sirius-- to a lesser degree, even-- didn't feel anywhere close to the same to him. 

"Jesus," Sirius breathed, and for the first time tonight, it wasn't out of fear. His eyes were wide as he looked at the screen. 

James hadn't realised that he'd been staring at Sirius until then, when he didn't know what Sirius was so impressed by. He glanced at the screen, and his eyes went wide as well. "Oh. Well." Not scary at all, and not impressive either. Weird, because James hadn't realised when he signed up to watch this movie that there would be a sex scene. Especially since it wasn't at the beginning. He could understand a sex scene in the beginning, but not in the middle, while characters were still dying and there was more to come. "That's weird." 

On his other side, Marlene snorted. "Right?" 

He found himself a little annoyed. James had never minded her presence before, which meant he'd gone straight from 'not sure I fancy Sirius' to 'wow can't people give us some space?'. He was going to have to talk to Sirius about this before Sirius went back home, because he couldn't live like this. 

* * *

After the second movie was done and they were all tired, James headed home, Sirius right by his side. 

"That was fun," Sirius said. 

"Yeah? You weren't scared the whole time?" 

Sirius grinned at him, completely unashamed. "Only half the time." They walked a little further. Less than a block, and Sirius turned to face him. "Do your friends really think we're dating?" 

"I dunno," James said. "That was the first time Lily had said anything like that to me." 

"Oh," Sirius said, looking back in front of him instead of at James. "Cause I was going to say, if you wanted to do something like that, we could. I can think of worse things than dating you." 

"Worse things, huh?" 

"Yeah, like having to go through another haunted house." 

"If you didn't want to go, you could've said so." 

Sirius flashed him another grin. "I didn't say that I didn't have fun. Just that I'm not jumping to do it again. I got to hold your hand the entire time, and that was pretty good." 

"I never knew what a big baby you were," James said with a snort, reaching out and grabbing his hand. It was awkward for a few seconds as they aligned their footsteps, but he caught sight of a pleased blush on Sirius's face. 

"I'm not a baby; I just get jumpy. Besides, that's the whole point, isn't it?" 

"I guess," James agreed easily. "It was nice to finally spend some time with you, though." 

"Same. It feels like I never talk to you anymore." 

"You can visit whenever you want. I'm never so busy that I can't make time for you." 

"Aw, look at you being a nice boyfriend," Sirius teased. 

"Damn right," James said, overly pleased with himself. He probably wouldn't mention-- for a few months, at least-- that he hadn't known for sure that he fancied Sirius until earlier that night. Sirius would get a good laugh out of it, after a while. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Feel free to drop by!


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